John 6:52–66

⁵²Then the evil people began to argue among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Otherwise, you won’t have real life in you. ⁵⁴Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. ⁵⁵My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. ⁵⁷The living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸I am not like the bread your ancestors ate. They ate that bread and still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹Jesus said all these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

⁶⁰When the followers of Jesus heard this, many of them said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹Knowing that his followers were complaining about this, Jesus said, “Does this teaching bother you? ⁶²Then will it also bother you to see the Son of Man going back to the place where he came from? ⁶³It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh doesn’t give life. The words I told you are spirit, and they give life. ⁶⁴But some of you don’t believe.” (Jesus knew from the beginning who did not believe and who would turn against him.) ⁶⁵Jesus said, “That is the reason I said, ‘If the Father does not bring a person to me, that one cannot come.’ ”

⁶⁶After Jesus said this, many of his followers left him and stopped following him.